This is the shortest day of the year. A yule log is usually decorated with evergreen & holly strands before being lit at sunset and burned until sunrise. Today is a celebration of family and friends, as well as a celebration of peace, love and positive energy.
Yule is a time of rest for the witchy household. Cleanse and consecrate your talismans and magickal tools by smoke cleansing them with myrrh. Focus your kitchen witchery on making warm-ing, rich foods using spices like cinnamon, clove, and ginger to promote harmony and love in the house. Take stock of your self, your materia magica, and your home. In your Book of Shadows or journal, make notes of your Witchcraft goals for the coming year and how you plan to achieve them. If you’re in a climate where it snows, collect snow to be used in spells to “freeze” or put the brakes on something. Burn candles dressed with ylang-ylang, cypress, or neroli essential oils and tuck sachets filled with chamomile and catnip around the house and in with your clothes and linens to help promote peaceful and restful energies. Make draft blockers to guard your doors and windows not only from the cold but from scarcity, meanness, and illness. Leave offerings for any household spirits. A bowl of porridge with a pat of butter is traditional.
Rachel Henderson